Majority prepares new security decree: new features on officers, evictions and reunification

The League pushes, the Viminale opens, the Quirinale watches. A new security decree will soon arrive in the Council of Ministers. Vice-Premier Matteo Salvini is accelerating the measures to be included: first and foremost, faster evictions of occupied houses, a crackdown on migrants' family reunifications and on baby gangs, with the Quaestor's warning to the families of under-14 offenders. Greater protection for police officers is also being considered, strengthening self-defence. The aim, the Carroccio explains, is 'to increase the protection of citizens and the forces of law and order'. Discussions will be held in the coming days with the other forces in the majority in order to finalise a shared text, with Salvini indicating that he has already consulted with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi.

Evictions, therefore, are in the foreground. A rule contained in the previous security decree had already speeded up the process of returning illegally occupied properties to their rightful owner, with rapid eviction by the police, but limiting the applicability of the action to first homes only. The aim is now to extend the measure to all other properties owned by a citizen. Also on the table is FdI's proposal to introduce a special procedure authorising the intervention of the judicial officer for evictions. This would be managed by a new body: the Authority for the Execution of Evictions, which would come under the Ministry of Justice and to which the owner would be able to apply directly.

On the migrant front, one of the objectives is to restrict the possibility of family reunification to spouses and minor children. Therefore, adult children and other relatives are excluded. The League is also pushing for a points-based residence permit. Points that would be cut from the document each time a foreigner commits an offence, making it easier to be repatriated. Another phenomenon on which the measure intends to intervene is that of the baby gangs, the gangs of very young people who are often the protagonists of crime episodes in the cities. For offences committed by children between 12 and 14 years of age, the police commissioner will issue a warning to the child's parents, who will be fined in the most serious cases. It is also intended to make crimes such as theft and pickpocketing prosecutable ex officio - i.e. without the victim being reported. Ex officio prosecution had been eliminated by the Cartabia reform. The League has also been pushing for some time for a 'financial guarantee' that the organisers of risky events would have to pay in advance in order to repay any damages from participants.

The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, for his part, emphasised the need to strengthen protection for the police. He was thinking in particular of when uniformed personnel intervene, for example by injuring or killing attackers, and are then entered in the register of suspects ex officio. 'The common feeling,' explained the Viminale chief, 'is that there is a widespread sense of indignation when there are highly paradoxical stories: a policeman does his duty and afterwards not only risks his life, but also finds himself affected by enquiries and investigations''. Already in the past there had been thoughts of an 'exemption' to avoid the automatism of inclusion among suspects. Doubts about the constitutionality of the measure had, however, put the brakes on the government. Now work is being done on a regulation that would still strengthen self-defence for the forces of law and order.